It's getting to be near the end of the year. One last time, I want to talk about contracts really quickly.

Remember that contracts aren't fair. No contract written is going to be totally fair. If you write one, it's going to be based on the things that you need/want. If someone else writes one, it will be based on what they need/want.

With that in mind, there are some contracts that are more evil than others. It isn't on the writer of the contract to be less evil—they're going to try to get away with as much as they can. It is up to you as the person signing the contract to be aware of what it is that you want and what you need.

There are three big things that companies want to try to get away with, and that you're going to want to control. The first thing is that they want to tie the rights up in perpetuity. (That's another word for forever.) That's a no-no. Give them a timeframe that is more reasonable to you. (I personally think ten years is reasonable.) After that, the rights revert back to you automatically no matter what, unless expressly extended in writing by both parties.

The next thing is selling, assuming, or assigning of rights. There shall be none of that. Here's an example: Coitus Publishing, which has been in business for two years and have only put out two books in that time, goes out of business. They're in debt. In order to get out from under some of the debt, they sell the rights to the boatload of books they've been able to procure. Your unproduced book, The Adventures of Wonderface, is a part of that deal, and now belongs to Garage Brand Productions. They go out of business two months later, selling their assets (which your book is a part of) to Dark Tunnel Entertainment, who doesn't like The Adventures of Wonderface so they sell it to Black Abyss, LLC. All of this happens without your knowledge, and since there's no one left at any of these companies, how are you going to track your property? (Or, you could just look up Miracleman. It was a rights nightmare for a very long time.)

Finally, you want to be able to audit their books. They could send you statements of how your books have done, and that's all well and dandy, but what you want to be able to do is to audit them, using an independent auditor, not one they use all the time for their own business. You want to be able to actually see what is happening with your property.

Again, contracts aren't fair. It's up to you to be vigilant and ask for what you want. No one else is going to do it for you.